Gators coach is seventh-highest paid coach in SEC

Florida coach Will Muschamp, coming of an 11-win season, has been given a raise that boosts his annual salary to nearly $3 million per season, Sporting News has learned.

Muschamp, entering his third season at Florida, received an annual increase of $250,000 per season on a contract that runs through 2017. The raise moves his average annual pay through the length of the contract to $2,928,971, an industry source said.

"Dr. Machen and I believe strongly in coach Muschamp and his leadership, and we felt it was appropriate to adjust his salary to be more in line with his market value," Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley said in a statement Friday.

Alabama’s Nick Saban is the highest-paid coach in college football at $5.47 million per season.

“I’m excited about where we’re headed,” Muschamp said last week at SEC Media Days. “Everyone associated with our program—from our president to our athletic director and right down the line—are on the same page. It’s exciting.”

Florida reached double-digit wins last season for the first time since 2009, and beat four teams that finished in the BCS poll final top 10 (Texas A&M, LSU, South Carolina, Florida State). The Gators finished third in the final BCS poll, just behind eventual national champion Alabama.

Muschamp inherited a talented but wayward team from former Gators coach Urban Meyer, who won two national championships at the school before the program began to unravel on and off the field. Meyer’s final team at Florida won eight games, and when he retired after the 2010 season, more than 30 players had been arrested over his six years in Gainesville.

Muschamp walked into that and won seven games in Year 1 while weeding out malcontents on the roster. A year later, Florida was in the national championship race in late November.

“We made strides in our second season,” Muschamp said. “Obviously the record was better. But more than anything to me, the roster in our locker room is much better. From a discipline standpoint, from a character standpoint, from a buy-in standpoint.”

Prior to arriving at Florida, Muschamp was the coach-in-waiting at Texas, and will be a prime candidate for the Longhorns’ job once coach Mack Brown retires. Should he continue to have success at Florida and should the Texas job become available, it will set up a bidding war between the two biggest heavyweights in the sport in terms of financial power, support and recruiting base.